Vayelech
Turn Your Face
Adapted from Ellen Frankel

Yet I will keep my countenance hidden on that day, because of all the evil they have done in turning to other Gods. (Devarim/Deuteronomy 31:18)

Our daughters ask: God's face is often hidden from us, just as the Torah predicts. How can we find God at such times?

Esther the Hidden One answers: When God withholds favor from us, our tradition speaks of hester panim, the hiding of God's face . . .

Leah the Namer interrupts: You, Esther, are the One-Who-Hid-in-the-Palace in order to save her people from destruction.

Esther continues: Yes, hiding is sometimes as much a sign of love as revelation is.

Dinah the Wounded One objects: After Auschwitz, any attempt to justify God's silence as a loving act of hester panim is indefensible. How could God remain hidden when the world was so dark?

Mother Rachel adds: Perhaps God suffers with all victims, waiting until humanity turns its own face back to God. Etty Hillesum, a young Dutch Jew who served as social worker in the Westerbork transit camp, reached out to God shortly before she was sent to Auschwitz. Etty wrote, "We must help You to help ourselves . . . to safeguard that little piece of You, God, in ourselves."

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